blue_can

Back in 2010 my understanding from Visa was that if someone presented a swipe and sign card it was to be accepted in place of chip and pin. When someone presented a swipe and sign card the business could swipe the card and it would print out a piece of paper for signature. In most places in the UK they did this. My understanding is that the places that refused were simply not aware of the procedure.

Andy33

That's still the requirement from Visa and Mastercard. It's just that now the chipped card rollout is complete across Europe and many other parts of the world, in many parts of the UK that are not frequented by US tourists, merchants can go from one year to the next without even seeing a non-chip card. I regularly use card terminals at my place of work, and while chip and signature cards turn up weekly, I haven't seen a swipe and sign card for eighteen months. When it did happen we found the swipe function on the terminal had stopped working but nobody had noticed. We went to full manual mode and took a card impression onto a multi-part card voucher. Not many people can remember how to do that, either.

Captain Schmidt

You won't see a Maestro logo on your Visa card, because Maestro is Mastercard's international debit card brand.

blue_can

Well I got to try my US card at NS a few days ago. Went directly to the human operated counter and noticed a sign in caps "Visa and Mastercard with Chip and Pin only". I got to the counter and asked the lady if they accepted US style cards. I was firmly told with chip only and with a photo ID. I pulled out the only US chipped cc I have and put it in the machine and also gave her my CA DL - the machine then printed out a receipt which I then signed and I was done.

Based on this it does not look like they will any longer take swipe and sign.

Marambio

I have an Argentinean Mastercard which is not chip-and-pin. I use it quite often in the UK and the only place where it doesn't work is at Tesco's self check-outs. At the staffed cashier they accept it without any trouble, though.

The only thing you have to do is tell the merchant to swipe the card. Since they are not used to deal with swipe cards anymore, they just insert it into the slot without thinking and then an error message pops up.

I have also used this same card in Berlin and in France (Paris and Biarritz) this year and never had any issues either.

stimpy

I just reach over and swipe it for them. Sometimes they are surprised at first, but when the receipt spits out that's all they care about.

GUWonder

Some store/restaurant/bar staff no longer know how to properly swipe cards, to the point where their repeated attempts to swipe my card fails to register but my own swiping of the cards works fine.

When and where convenient, I prefer to swipe my own card rather than expecting them to do it. A growing proportion of EU retailers' staff are unfamiliar with swiped cards, so this is my way of assisting myself before the awkwardness (related to "your card doesn't work") arises.

lhrsfo

Just stay in the main tourist establishments and you'll be fine. Otherwise, take cash if you need to avoid a potential problem.

I am peripherally involved with a chain of 150 odd franchised shops in the UK (oddly with US origins) and I know for a fact that over half the owners will turn business away rather than take the risk of a non chip and pin card (whether it's true or not, they believe that any fraud liability will sit on them rather than the card company).

stimpy

Was at a top hotel in Paris this week whose clientele are mostly Americans. Lots of Japanese too who also have swipe cards. However I handed over a Euro Amex at check out which is chip and pin. They are so used to swipe cards that they swiped my Euro Amex anyways. And of course it worked fine.

Later on the road at a truck stop a Japanese member of our group handed over her chip-less credit card to buy some snacks. The lady had no idea what to do with this card so we swiped it for her and she was shocked that it worked.

Lost

I was in Edinburgh, Birmingham, London, Brussels, Ghent, and Amsterdam in May and had few issues with my Visa Chase Sapphire Preferred chip and sig card. Edinburgh tram automated kiosks took it. I can't remember if I used it for the tube automated kiosks, but I want to say I did. All manned sales points took it obviously. A couple were surprised when a receipt popped out.

The only place that did not take it were the Belgian Rail automated kiosks. Used the manned ticket office for most of our trips, and had to buy on board for a surcharge for one trip from an unmanned station (€25 from Diegem to Brussels Centraal- about a 9km ride ) All of the Belgian Rail ticket staff seemed like they were familiar with US credit cards.

The only other place that wouldn't take my CC on a previous trip was an automated gas pump at a Shell gas station in Ghent. It did however take my swipe ATM card with PIN number.

blue_can

So now that I'm back from my trip it turned out that I was able to use my chip and sign card in all places I attempted it. Having said that I only attempted it in places where they were likely to see Americans.

My attempted use of my UK debit card was a failure owing to me not fully understanding the pin setup. I got a new card before the trip and also got a pin in the mail. I then signed up for online banking for the UK bank account and setup a pin online so I thought I was set. Got the UK and tried to use my card at a restaurant in Oxford and it did not work. Went in to a branch to report the problem and found out that the online pin is different to the pin used to draw cash and pay with the card at retailers. This proved to be a unresolvable obstacle as the bank was willing to issue a new pin either sent to my home address in the states or to another bank in the UK with a timescale of 7 business days or so. So I ended up using my US bank card to draw cash but never did end up using the UK card at a chip and pin paypoint.

stimpy

There are actually two types of Belgian automatic kiosks. One that takes only Belgian cards and one that takes certain international cards. The domestic ones won't even take Dutch or French cards. But the international ones work fine for those cards. Not sure about American cards though.

mera

I'm going to England in a few weeks, this is a dumb question but one I've been unable to find an answer for and this thread seems close to what I'm wondering: For my Chase Sapphire Preferred (or any other chip and sign card) I don't swipe it right? I insert it in the slot and then it auto prints the slip to sign, I don't have to trigger anything, right?

blue_can

Correct. If you are not sure just ask the person servicing your transaction. Usually there is a slot at the bottom of the machine - just insert the card and follow the directions on the screen.

mera

Thanks much for the info!